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We talked with Flody Suarez, who is currently bringing The Cher Showto broadway. We wanted to hear about his extensive work in the entertainment industry across TV, film, and the stage as well as the particulars of bringing iconic songs into a whole new setting.

How were you first introduced to producing?

Flody Suarez: I was the V.P. of Advertising for a small film company releasing art house films, and through that experience I got to work with a lot of young, scrappy producers making passion projects. It was an interesting learning experience and it taught me a lot about the budgeting and marketing process. From there, I went into TV at NBC and was able to learn from some pretty amazing executives and producers. Warren Littlefield was the President of NBC and he is a role model in nurturing and supporting producers. I was lucky enough to work on projects with Marcy Carsey, who set the bar for helping comedy writers and comedians navigate the network process to get their vision on air, and John Wells, who is fearless and brilliant at pushing a drama to be intelligent and provocative in a way that engages audiences. I am kind of a sponge and like to watch and study what makes other people successful. I was lucky to have a front row seat to some really special people.

You’ve had plenty of experience with both theatrical producing and producing for TV and film. Can you speak about some of the major differences and similarities between them?

FS: I have a lot of television experience, having worked in comedy, drama, long form, and reality programming, but Broadway is something new to me. The drive for me to try theater was mainly project specific. I had these two ideas that really could only live on stage, so I moved to NY and started to try to learn about this process, which is similar to TV in that it is ultimately about finding great writers and nurturing their process. It is also wildly different from TV in the way shows are built, both creatively and structurally. I was lucky enough to meet Rick Elice, who is writing the The Cher Showand Joe Dipietro, who is writing What’s New Pussycat, The Tom Jones Musical – they are both brilliant and I have loved watching them shape these very different shows. The process is much slower than television and it is a much more intimate process in that there are no studio or network notes. The process is really between producers and their creative team.

You have an impressive partnership with Jeffrey Seller. How was this partnership formed? What was the process of creating Seller Suarez Productions?

FS: When I came to New York it was with the intention of finding a producer to bring aboard The Cher Showto help me navigate this world. I met with a lot of people and was really stunned at what a small and interconnected business this is. People are passionate and professional and really opened their doors to me – this is a special community and I have been blown away by how kind people have been. I was lucky enough to attend a workshop of Hamiltonand was a little stunned at the confident way it was presented. Every aspect of it seemed to have been meticulously planned. I spent a great deal of time watching Jeffrey while watching the show. Like Marcy Carsey, John Wells, and Warren Littlefield, Jeffrey is someone at the top of his game that I can watch and learn from. We started to do a little TV as well, so there is a nice flow of knowledge between us. We have Rise, a new drama from Jason Katims, airing on NBC this March. It is a book Jeffrey loved about a high school drama teacher and really feels right as our first TV show.

Congratulations on your new project, The Cher Show. What has it been like developing a bio-musical about such an iconic artist?

FS: The Cher Showis something that has been in my head for over a decade and I finally had to just pack up and move to New York to dive into the process. Cher has had an incredible career and her music has spoken to audiences for over five decades. It is a powerful story about believing in yourself and never letting someone else define your success – her iconic status creates a ton of opportunities to tap into sounds, images and moments that have a personal connection to the audience.

You have had enormous success in your producing career. Do you have any advice to young professionals who are just getting started?

FS: Every job is a learning experience. Watch everyone around you. See what they do that works and what they do that doesn’t work. Realize that they all have hopes and dreams and are doing a job. They are trying to get ahead just like you. Make friends, help people along the way. It is a small business and those people will be in your life for a long time. Be nice and be honest. It will pay off. Pursue things you are passionate about and surround yourself with people you respect. Know that failure is part of the process. Keep moving forward. Don’t let anyone discourage you. If you believe in something find another way. You will get one hundred “no”s for every “yes”.

Welcome to the start of a CTI blog. If you’re here on the CTI website, I’m guessing Broadway is a passion for you and you’re interested in learning more about how the business of Broadway works from the inside. It’s a business that is both thrilling and frustrating, a life-changing experience and enough to drive you crazy.

Over the past 37 years at CTI we teach the teachable part of Broadway producing. Using what they’ve learned here, dozens of CTI alums have gone on to produce some of Broadway’s great hits. Our courses are all taught by working Broadway professionals – from producers and general managers to ad agency executives and attorneys. Our networking opportunities will help connect you to these pros and to others who are like you – excited to learn more about the business of Broadway.
This blog will be a kind of supplement to the CTI courses that you can enjoy whether or not you take the courses themselves. We’ll be talking about best practices, the difficult issues that arise when you produce a show, emerging trends, and how-to resources.

I’ll write some of them, we’ll do some interviews with important players, and go into some nuts-and-bolts ideas too. Along the way, we’ll define some terms to give you the working vocabulary you need. I hope you’ll join us both here and in person at CTI’s courses. You couldn’t pick a more exciting field.

MIKE ISAACSON

New York, NY – January 12, 2017 – Tony Award®-winning Broadway producer Mike Isaacson will be presented The Commercial Theater Institute’s Robert Whitehead Award for “outstanding achievement in commercial theatre producing” at a reception at Sardi’s on Tuesday, March 14, 2017.

The award is inspired by the five-decade-long career of Tony Award-winning Broadway producer Robert Whitehead, who died in 2002. CTI is the nation’s only formal program that professionally trains commercial theatre producers. The award honors a graduate of CTI for outstanding achievement in commercial theatre producing. CTI presented the first Robert Whitehead Award in 1993 to Benjamin Mordecai and Susan Quint Gallin.

“What I love about Mike is that he’s very brave in his producing decisions but deeply concerned about the people who he works with and the people who work for him. As both a presenter and producer he’s created organizations filled with professionals who love what they do and love him for leading them. He’s just what every producer should aspire to,” said Tom Viertel, Executive Director of CTI.

“In the tradition of the legendary producer, Robert Whitehead, for whom this award is named, Mike Isaacson is a passionate and prolific producer,” said Victoria Bailey, Executive Director of Theatre Development Fund. “From St. Louis to Broadway, Mike’s list of producing credits include some of the most popular shows in recent memory.”

“Mike Isaacson is the ideal recipient of the Robert Whitehead Award because he displays an unwavering passion and commitment to every project. He truly puts his heart on Broadway,” said Charlotte St. Martin, President of the Broadway League. “Combining his talents as both a producer and a presenter, he has consistently enriched the industry by bringing important, innovative and fun work to the stage.”

Since 2000, Mike Isaacson co-headed Fox Theatricals with Kristin Caskey and has produced more than 21 Broadway musicals and plays, national tours, off-Broadway plays, and London productions. In June of 2015, he received the Tony® Award for Best Musical for Fun Home by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel. Fun Home won five 2015 Tony® Awards and was also a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It also received The Obie, The New York Drama Critics Award and The Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical. A national tour opened at Cleveland’s Playhouse Square in October of this year and will tour the U.S. throughout 2017. Other producing highlights include The Humans (2016 Tony Award, Best Play); Bring It On The Musical (2013 Tony® nomination for Best Musical); Red(2010 Tony® Award, Best Play); Legally Blonde the Musical (2011 Olivier Award, Best Musical); Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002 Tony® Award, Best Musical); You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown; If/Then by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey and starring Idina Menzel; The Seagull starring Kristin Scott Thomas; Caroline, or Change by Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest starring Gary Sinise, and Death of a Salesman (1999 Tony® Award); Traces (Off-Broadway and national tour); Grace, starring Paul Rudd and Michael Shannon. For the Independent Presenters Network, he served as producer for the Broadway productions of Spamalot (2005 Tony® Award, Best Musical), Ragtime (revival) and The Color Purple. With his IPN colleagues Tom Gabbard and John Breckenridge, he also produced and supervised the revised national tour of 9 to 5 The Musical, which played throughout the U.S. and the U.K. All told, his productions have received more than 96 Tony® Award Nominations, and 29 Tony® Awards.

Mike Isaacson is also the third Executive Producer in The Muny’s 99 year history. He has produced 35 shows there, and The Muny will celebrate 100 years in its 2018 season.

For 14 years, Isaacson supervised the U.S. Bank Broadway Series, bringing more than 100 Broadway productions to St. Louis’s Fabulous Fox theatre. In 2010, he received the Broadway League’s Samuel J. L’Hommedieu Award for Outstanding Achievement in Presenter Management. Isaacson has also served on the Board of Governors, the Executive Committee and the Governance Committee of The Broadway League. He was most recently honored for “Excellence in the Arts” by the Arts and Education Council in St Louis.

A joint project of The Broadway League and Theatre Development Fund, CTI was founded in 1981 by the late Frederic B. Vogel. The current executive director, Tom Viertel took on leadership of the program in 2013.

STACEY MINDICH

New York, NY – December 15, 2015 – Tony Award®-winning Broadway producer Stacey Mindich will be presented The Commercial Theater Institute’s Robert Whitehead Award for “outstanding achievement in commercial theatre producing” at a reception at Sardi’s on Tuesday, March 15, 2016.

The award is inspired by the five-decade-long career of Tony Award-winning Broadway producer Robert Whitehead, who died in 2002. CTI is the nation’s only formal program that professionally trains commercial theatre producers. The award honors a graduate of CTI for outstanding achievement in commercial theatre producing. CTI presented the first Robert Whitehead Award in 1993 to Benjamin Mordecai and Susan Quint Gallin.

Stacey Mindich is a Tony Award-winning producer and was recently named one of Variety’s Entertainment Elite. Noteworthy productions include the Tony Award-winning Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Bridges of Madison County (Tony Award, Best Score), Annie, The Heiress, Lucky Guy, The Cripple of Inishmaan,The Lion (Drama Desk Award), and this season’s much anticipated original musical, Dear Evan Hansen.

“Stacey is an ideal Whitehead Award winner. She is bold and passionate – developing and producing great new shows for Broadway and beyond while supporting artists across a wide range of experience as well as important theatrical organizations. She’s what a Broadway producer should be,” said Tom Viertel, Executive Director of CTI.

“Stacey Mindich continues the tradition of legendary producers such as Robert Whitehead, for whom this award is named, with her innovation in developing and producing works by both new and established artists,” said Victoria Bailey, TDFs’ Executive Director.

“It’s fitting that the very talented Tony Award-winning producer Stacey Mindich has been named the recipient of the 2016 Robert Whitehead Award,” said Charlotte St. Martin, President of the Broadway League. “Stacey’s dedication to both new and classical productions on our stages makes her an excellent choice to honor Robert Whitehead’s legacy.”

After a critically-acclaimed run at Arena Stage in Washington, DC, Stacey Mindich Productions’ newest project, Dear Evan Hansen, will have its New York premiere at Second Stage Theatre in March. The original musical features a score by the Tony-nominated composing team of Pasek & Paul, a book by Outer Critics Circle Award-winning playwright Steven Levenson and is directed by Rent and Next to Normal’s Tony-nominated Michael Greif. Dear Evan Hansen was born out of a commissioning program at Stacey Mindich Productions that pairs emerging composers with esteemed directors. Believing deeply in the need to premiere new musical works and nurture new voices, Stacey has also funded and enhanced productions for a variety of not-for-profit theaters including Playwrights Horizons (The Dead, Burnt Part Boys, The Shaggs, Far from Heaven and Fly by Night), The Roundabout Theatre Company (Ordinary Days and The Disappearance of Tom Durnin), Williamstown Theatre Festival (an as-of-yet untitled Benjamin Scheuer project) and Second Stage (Quiara Hudes’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Water by the Spoonful and Jason Robert Brown’s beloved The Last Five Years). Stacey has also established The Stacey and Eric Mindich Fund for Musicals at Lincoln Center Theater, to commission new musicals (Women on the Verge, Dogfight) and support stellar revivals such as the Tony Award-winning South Pacific and the Tony Award-winning The King and I.

Stacey is the co-chair of the board at New York City Center, home to the Tony Award-winning Encores series of musical revivals and its newest series, Stacey’s brainchild, Encores: Off-Center. Led by artistic director Jeanine Tesori, Off-Center spotlights off-Broadway revivals interpreted for a new generation. Stacey is a founding board member of the Lilly Awards, where she presents the annual “Go Write a Play Award,” which supports a new work by a female playwright every year. Past recipients include Tanya Barfield, Neena Beeber and Heidi Schreck. She also initiated the “Fund for New Musicals” at the National Alliance for Musical Theater, where she was vice president of the board for many years. Married to Eric Mindich for 20 years, their proudest co-productions are sons Russell, Danny and Charlie.

A joint project of The Broadway League and Theatre Development Fund, CTI was founded in 1981 by the late Frederic B. Vogel. The current executive director, Tom Viertel took on leadership of the program in 2013.

Celebrate the launch of the 2015-2016 CTI season with us! Come join us at Sardi’s for our first networking event of the season. Meet fellow alumni, make connections, and learn about the new CTI Courses!

CTI is throwing another networking event! Join us for a special CTI Alumni Networking Event in celebration of the 69th Annual Tony Awards. Come meet your fellow alumni to discuss upcoming projects and who won on June 7th.

2015 ROBERT WHITEHEAD AWARD

TO BE PRESENTED TO

ROBERT COLE

AWARD RECEPTION TO TAKE PLACE AT SARDI’S ON MARCH 10, 2015

AWARD PRESENTED FOR “OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN

COMMERCIAL THEATRE PRODUCING”

New York, NY – December 16, 2014 – Tony® award-winner Broadway producer, Robert Cole, will be presented The Commercial Theater Institute’s Robert Whitehead Award for “outstanding achievement in commercial theatre producing” at a reception at Sardi’s on Tuesday, March 10, 2015.

The award is inspired by the five decade long career of Tony® award-winner Broadway producer Robert Whitehead, who died in 2002. CTI is the nation’s only formal program, which professionally trains commercial theatre producers. The award honors a graduate of CTI for outstanding achievement in commercial theatre producing. CTI presented the first Robert Whitehead Award in 1993 to Benjamin Mordecai and Susan Quint Gallin.

“It’s hard to imagine a more worthy recipient of the Robert Whitehead Award than Bob Cole,” said Tom Viertel, Executive Director of CTI. “A graduate of one of the very first CTI classes, he has gone on to produce some of the most important and entertaining Broadway shows of our time. From Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which launched August Wilson’s career, to Angels in America to Once, Bob has made a huge difference on Broadway.”

“Robert Cole’s artistic vision and hard work has been a welcome presence on Broadway for nearly three decades, so I’m thrilled that he has been named the recipient of the 2015 Robert Whitehead Award,” said Charlotte St. Martin, Executive Director of the Broadway League. “Thanks to his multi-faceted talent, this multiple Tony Award-winning and nominated producer is the ideal person to honor Robert Whitehead’s legacy.”

“Like the legendary producer, Robert Whitehead, Robert Cole has presented prestigious productions of plays by some of the greatest playwrights of our time: Tony Kushner, Sam Shepard, August Wilson and Lanford Wilson to name a few,” said Victoria Bailey, Theatre Development Fund’s Executive Director. “It is fitting that he be the recipient of this year’s Robert Whitehead Award.”

Robert Cole has worked in the professional theatre since 1975 as a producer, general manager, teacher, literary agent and actor. His experience in the entertainment industry also includes film and television development and consulting for performing arts organizations. In 1979 Cole founded the Michael Chekhov Studio, an acting school for professional actors in New York. He served as the Studio’s artistic director until 1982 when he began to pursue a career in producing. He continues to teach acting at various colleges and acting studios. Robert Cole made his Broadway producing debut in 1984 with August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Other credits include The Crucible (starring Liam Neison & Laura Linney); Death of a Salesman (starring Brian Dennehy); Angels in America; Horton Foote’s The Young Man from Atlanta; Lanford Wilson’s Redwood Curtain (starring Jeff Daniels); Elaine Stritch at Liberty; Eric Bogosian’s Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (starring Gary Sinise); Mamet’s The Cryptogram; Sam Shepard’s Buried Child; John Leguizamo’s Freak; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (starring Ashley Judd); A Raisin in the Sun (starring Sean Combs); and Emily Mann’s Having Our Say. Mr. Cole also produced the film, Tape, directed by Richard Linklater and starring Uma Thurman & Ethan Hawke. In 2002 Robert Cole took a hiatus from producing. Upon sensing the 7-year itch in 2009 he returned to producing with a development deal with the Shubert Organization. Since that return he has produced Once; Lucky Guy (starring Tom Hanks); A Steady Rain (starring Daniel Craig & Hugh Jackman); That Championship Season (2011); Orphans; and Harvey Fierstein’s Casa Valentina. He is the recipient of 4 Tony® Awards. Cole is a member of the The Broadway League and serves on its Board of Governors.

A joint project of The Broadway League and Theatre Development Fund, CTI was founded in 1981 by the late Frederic B. Vogel. The current executive director, Tom Viertel took on leadership of the program in 2013.

THE COMMERCIAL THEATER INSTITUTE (CTI), now in its 31st year, is a project of Theatre Development Fund (TDF) and The Broadway League. The nation’s only formal program, which specifically trains commercial theatre producers, CTI provides resources and guidance to individuals interested in the various paths one can take towards creating commercial productions for the stage. For details and schedules of all CTI programs, visit www.commercialtheaterinstitute.com or call 212.586.1109. Facebook: become a fan of CTI and follow on Twitter @CTIPrograms

THE BROADWAY LEAGUE, founded in 1930, is the national trade association for the Broadway industry. The League’s 700-plus members include theatre owners and operators, producers, presenters, and general managers who present in nearly 200 markets in North America, as well as suppliers of goods and services to the theatre industry. Each year, League members bring Broadway to nearly 30 million people in New York and on tour across the U.S. and Canada. For more information, visit www.BroadwayLeague.com, or follow The Broadway League on Twitter @TheBwayLeague or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BroadwayLeague. BROADWAY.ORG is the League’s new official on-line headquarters for Broadway in NYC and on tour. Download the free Broadway.org mobile app for iOS or Android, and the free IBDB mobile app for iOS or Android. The Broadway League annually presents the Antoinette Perry “Tony” Awards,® one of the most coveted awards in the entertainment industry, with The American Theatre Wing.

THEATRE DEVELOPMENT FUND, a not-for-profit service organization for the performing arts, was created in the conviction that the live theatrical arts afford a unique expression of the human condition that must be sustained and nurtured. It is dedicated to developing diverse audiences for live theatre and dance, and strengthening the performing arts community in New York City. Since 1968, TDF’s programs have provided over 87 million people with access to performances at affordable prices and have returned over $2.4 billion to thousands of productions. Best known for its TKTS Discount Booths, TDF’s membership, outreach, access (including its Autism Theatre Initiative) and education programs — as well as its Costume Collection — have introduced thousands of people to the theatre and helped make the unique experience of theatre available to everyone, including students and people with disabilities. Recent TDF honors include a 2011 Mayor’s Award for Arts and Culture, a 2012 Tony Honor for Excellence for its Open Doors Arts Education Program, a 2012 New York Innovative Theatre Award for its support of the off-Off Broadway community and a 2013 Lucille Lortel honor for “Outstanding Body of Work” in support of the Off Broadway community. For more information, go to: www.tdf.org.